James Gunn Defends Chris Pratt, Blasts Viral Tweet Telling Marvel To Replace Him!

Man, people hate Chris Pratt!

The Jurassic World star is like the cilantro of Hollywood. We all thought he was appropriately spicy for a baked potato and then all of a sudden every fourth person says he actually tastes like soap and is completely unbearable.

Ostensibly this is because of a perceived homophobia, but… is it really?

The wave of hate for Pratt crested yet again over the past week after the long-awaited reveal of the Thor: Love and Thunder trailer, in which Marvel‘s other, other Chris reprises his role as Star-Lord. For many, seeing Pratt in their Thor movie was the fly in their soup, and they once again made this very well known on social media.

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One such viral tweet, asking Marvel Studios to just replace Chris with Patrick Wilson, made its way to the very Twitter-active James Gunn, writer-director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films. And he was NOT having it, responding to the fan:

“For what? Because of your made-up, utterly-false beliefs about him? For something that someone else told you about him that’s not true? Chris Pratt would never be replaced as Star-Lord but, if he ever was, we would all be going with him.”

For what? Because of your made-up, utterly-false beliefs about him? For something that someone else told you about him that’s not true? Chris Pratt would never be replaced as Star-Lord but, if he ever was, we would all be going with him.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) April 25, 2022

Whoa! Gunn seems to be referring to the Hillsong Church controversy. Pratt has been seen in attendance at the formerly very popular Christian church, along with such celebs like Hailey and Justin Bieber, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Nick Jonas, Kyrie Irving, and Vanessa Hudgens. It used to be a real hot spot for the famous faithful.

Then it came out that Hillsong had supported conversion therapy, the harmful practice of trying to brainwash LGBT youths into not being gay anymore. It’s hardly the only Christian sect that had a terrible track record with conversion specifically or homophobic practices generally. But then there were lots of other unsavory ingredients that also came out about Hillsong, and, well, it’s been a whole thing.

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Throughout all this, the scandal of the church has hung around on one celeb in particular. Elliot Page blasted Chris Pratt, saying he should address his church’s “infamously anti lgbtq” views. After a few days of controversy, the Parks and Recreation alum actually did put out a statement, saying his church was not anti-LGBTQ and in fact “open their doors to absolutely everyone” and offers “love and support” to members “regardless of sexual orientation, race or gender.” Furthermore, he added that he himself, separate from his faith, was firmly against homophobia of any kind:

“My faith is important to me but no church defines me or my life, and I am not a spokesman for any church or any group of people. My values define who I am. We need less hate in this world, not more. I am a man who believes that everyone is entitled to love who they want free from the judgment of their fellow man.”

Back on Twitter on Monday, Gunn also alluded to his leading man having left Hillsong, along with quite a few others in recent months, writing to another fan who said he’s part of a church that supports conversion therapy:

“He isn’t. I know the church he currently goes to. Do you? (The answer is you don’t, but you heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone where he goes to church, so decided, “yeah, okay, I’ll believe this terrible thing I heard online about this celebrity!”)”

It’s true. Apart from being open about his Christianity, Chris doesn’t really speak about which church he goes to. So people don’t really know.

We suppose he could have told everyone he left Hillsong. But it seems he’s stopped trying to defend himself against the haters, who didn’t believe his statement the first time anyway.

We’ll just say this: if Chris Pratt actually said some homophobic s**t, wouldn’t we be the first site to blast the man?? He hasn’t, not that we’ve seen. And yet… The whole ‘Chris Pratt is homophobic’ thing only stuck around. But just on him. Not on any other Christian celebrities. No one is calling for Hailee Steinfeld to turn in her badge and bow ‘n’ arrow.

It certainly feels like the hate for Pratt comes first, and the reason comes after, doesn’t it? Hence the reading of a message of gratitude for his wife and daughter as shade against his ex and his own son, something that would have felt like quite a stretch if it were any other celebrity.

Well, someone decided to fight back against the internet consensus about Chris. His collaborator of several years and good friend — the same man whom Chris stood by, when the right-wing Pizzagate crowd was trying to get canceled because he was so vocally anti-Trump.

Look, we’ll just end by saying feel how you want about Chris Pratt. No one is telling you that you need to like every celeb. But Gunn is right; if you’re going to attack people online, don’t do it based on bad information and guesses. It’s neither fair nor kind.

[Image via James Gunn/Twitter/Marvel/YouTube.]